Lights, camera

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, August 23, 2007

Above the stands where fans watch baseball players battle for a victory, another team is trying to put on a show, regardless of what goes on down on the field.

Chris Lones, video production manager, sits at a console that controls the graphics on the scoreboards. He's closely following the night's script, but has to be ready for any surprises.

"Grand slam! First grand slam!," he shouts to his staff. "Play of the game." He cues Jerry O'Donnell to announce the feat over the stadium's speakers, calls for a replay and runs all appropriate home run graphics on the scoreboard.

While it isn't always this exciting on the field, the 15-some member production staff has to make the game interesting to baseball fans and non-fans.

Lones worked with the Milwaukee Brewers before coming to Dow Diamond. The production of Loons' games is pretty advanced for a minor league team, he said, but the stadium is limited to the screens on the scoreboard and the screens above the fixed seats.

"We have a lot more fun stuff than most minor league parks," he said. "We wanted to start small and do a good job on a small scale."

That small scale includes a closed circuit broadcast directed upstairs and displayed on screens throughout the park, an instant replay system and another staffer who takes the instant replays and dresses them up to play later in the game, such as for the play of the game. Three fixed cameras keep track of action on and around the field, while another wireless camera is able to rove around freely.

Lones runs the graphics on the scoreboard and his options are numerous. He has headshots of all Midwest League players for their plate appearances (this includes Loons players on theme nights, where they have been dressed in Halloween costumes or sporting mustaches).

He has graphics for big plays, sponsor advertisements and movie clips used to kick off the game and (hopefully) inspire rallies. There always are new things he's trying and plenty of clips that fans have not seen because the situation has not come up yet or because Lones might be a little superstitious.

"I hold the ropes very tightly when it comes to rally clips," Lones said. The inspirational speech from "Animal House" is one of the most commonly played videos in rally situations.

On the audio end, it's Kyle Ewing, a Central Michigan University senior, who decides what fans hear. He has a bank of hundreds of clips to play in all situations from strikeouts to errors to foul balls.

"I probably have 500 songs," he said. He keeps his ears tuned to the radio so he can expand his library. "I pretty much just pick stuff I would like to hear at a ballgame."

The system he uses allows for minimal time to find an appropriate bit of music. If a Loons' pitcher fans a batter, he hits K on the keyboard, then clicks a song.

Sometimes, it's a bit of an art to choose what to play on the speakers or scoreboard. Opposing home runs are difficult, Lones said, because they have to find the right item to lift the crowd's spirit without celebrating the blast. Walkout music is chosen by the players.

"Trayvon usually brings the other guy's music up," he said. Robinson is known for trying new batting music to complement his standard "Two Step"walkup track.

Pump-up songs start around the middle of the game to keep the crowd into the game.

Other surefire winners are "The Addams Family" theme and an order to "everybody clap your hands."

So armed with the arsenal of fan cams, kiss cams, build-a-burger and other special events, the production team's goal, like the rest of the Loons staff, is to put on the best show and keep fans coming back game after game.

"They may remember the play on the field, they may remember if the Loons won or not," said O'Donnell. "But for our part, we're hoping there's something we did in production that makes them want to come and have fun with us again."